Chelsea vs. Arsenal: Key Issues That Will Shape Premier League Game
Arsenal will return to Stamford Bridge this weekend for the first time following their humiliating 6-0 thrashing last spring, which effectively threw them out of the Premier League title race.
The Gunners will be flying high after their most comfortable win of the season over Galatasaray in midweek, but they are up against the best team in England this season.
Let's look at several battles that will shape the game—keep your eyes out for these.
Mind Games
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Arsene Wenger has never beaten Jose Mourinho, and the Portuguese never misses an opportunity to remind his counterpart of their markedly different success rates in recent years.
Mourinho made the tabloid piranhas go crazy several months ago after he called Wenger a "specialist in failure." Yet Arsenal won the FA Cup last season and Chelsea finished without a trophy.
The trauma of getting thoroughly beaten last spring will no doubt be in the Arsenal players' minds, and they must overcome this intangible mental block to win at Chelsea's home ground.
Mathieu Flamini vs. the World
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Given that Mikel Arteta will probably not be fit to start this game, Mathieu Flamini will have the rather unenviable task of trying to stop the most rampant midfield in England.
Cesc Fabregas, Oscar and the rest will really stretch the very limited Flamini, but he will have to shield the defense while distributing the ball to spring Arsenal's counterattacks and avoiding yellow cards.
Arteta is subtly one of Arsenal's very most important players, both in terms of his unique skill set and role as preeminent leader. While Flamini will not be able to compensate for the latter, his failure to track speedy runners will leave the back four hopelessly exposed.
Can Danny Welbeck Do It Again?
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Danny Welbeck provided Arsenal with an invaluable asset against Galatasaray: an intelligent, hard-working and clinical goalscorer.
He netted his first professional hat-trick through brilliant small link-ups with his teammates. The fact that none of the goals were spectacular one-offs is enormously encouraging, as it reveals his potential and the progress he has already made.
If John Terry and Co. render him a non-threat, he will leave too much burden on Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. Arsenal need that focal point up top, and Welbeck will thus be crucial to any good chances Arsenal create.
Cesc Fabregas Faces an Old Friend with New Toys
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This will be the first time that Cesc Fabregas has ever played against Arsenal, having become one of the best players in club history before he hit his prime and departed for Barcelona thereafter.
He is now the pantomime villain and traitor, and though we'll have to wait months to see his reception at the Emirates Stadium, it will be very interesting to see how Arsene Wenger plans for a player he knows exceptionally well.
With the exception of a half-season of a ludicrously in-form Robin van Persie, Fabregas never had the sheer number of attacking options that he does now, and no striker as good as Diego Costa.
Old loyalties will be set aside, of course, and Fabregas and Costa will ruthlessly slice Arsenal's defense apart if the entire team does not cohere.
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